Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Although August 25 was set as the date for
inauguration of the new Afghan president the issue of who will be
president is still not settled even after several months of recounts and
audits of the votes subsequent to the summer vote.

Abdullah Abdullah who won the first round claims
that there was fraud including ballot stuffing on behalf of his opponent
Ashraf Ghani in the runoff. Preliminary results in the runoff show
Ghani in the lead. The audit
is still not even close to finished. Karzai says that he will
relinquish the presidency by September 2, the new scheduled inauguration
date. However, at the present pace it seems highly unlikely that the
results will be finalized by that time.

Teams representing the two
candidates are continually fighting over which ballots should or should
not be counted.
The US, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, brokered a deal between
the two candidates who agreed to cooperate on an audit of the entire 8
million votes that were cast in order to ensure that any fraudulent
votes were rejected. The two also agreed that whoever won would form a
government of national unity. Hamid Karzai the outgoing president has
run the country since 2001.

The election, lasting 10 weeks,
took place back on June 14 under UN supervision. However, as with past
Afghan elections there have been accusations of fraud from many sides.
The Independent Electoral Commission(IEC) is just now due to begin
rejecting votes judged fraudulent. Spokesperson for the IEC,Noor Mohammad Noor,
said: "The Independent Election Commission is trying very hard to
finish the process as soon as possible". The new inauguration date of
Sept. 2 is just two days prior to a NATO summit that will determine how
much aid NATO countries will provide for Afghanistan after most NATO
troops will pull out of the country at the end of this year. Having a
new president and a peaceful power transition would be a sign that NATO
was leaving with at least some degree of success after 13 years in
Afghanistan. This in turn would perhaps lead to a generous aid package.
Many doubt that the process can be completed by Sept. 2.

Abdullah spokesperson
Mujib Rahimi said: "Honestly, I cannot come out with something definite
on that, but I hope. It's Afghanistan. Things are unpredictable." An
unidentified official from the Ghani campaign was even more
pessimistic.He said that there had been little progress on deciding what
the power-sharing government of national unity would be like and
said:"Nothing yet has added to the political framework and the
commission couldn't reach an agreement in most of the areas". One
unidentified Western official also expressed doubts about having
finalized results before Sept. 2, saying:"I don't see how there will be
any space for compromise, because the pie is too small and there are too
many people who want a piece."

Karzai is accused by Abdullah of helping Ghani in the runoff to a fraudulent win but both Ghani and Karzai deny this. Karzai has been urging both candidates to cooperate in the auditing process. His office issued a statement: "Prolonging
of the presidential process has affected people's daily life,
particularly in security, economy and governance.This must end as soon
as possible."

The impasse has hurt the Afghan economy and also given encouragement to the Taliban insurgents.
Western supporters fear that one or the other of the candidates
might pull out of the process or reject the result of the edit. There
could be protests and civil unrest as a result. The audit process seems
far from complete. As of last Monday August 25, just, 3,644 of the
23,000 ballot boxes were put through the invalidation process. 74 boxes
were rejected, and 697 selected for a further recount.

UN mission chief Jan Kubis noted:"It
is still premature to draw conclusions about the final audit result
based on these initial findings All parties should continue to respect
the process so as to not create unrealistic expectations." The
Afghan government expelled a NY Times reporter for writing an article
claiming that government officials were considering seizing power to end
the long standoff between the two candidates. The conflict between the
two candidates mirrors the latent conflicts between Pashtuns in the
south and east of Afghanistan who support Ghani and Tajiks and other
northern groups who support Abdullah. Abdullah is again threatening to pull out of the audit process.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Four senior U.S. officials told the New York Times that the first two
attacks targeting Islamist militia in Tripoli were a joint operation of
Egypt and the UAE

The New York TImes has often been used as a mouthpiece for the US administration as discussed in a Guardian article back in June 2012 by Glenn Greenwald.
According to the Times report: The United States, the officials
said, was caught by surprise: Egypt and the Emirates, both close allies
and military partners, acted without informing Washington or seeking its
consent, leaving the Obama administration on the sidelines. Egyptian
officials explicitly denied the operation to American diplomats, the
officials said.

While it is possible that the two countries acted without US consent
the only evidence for this given is from anonymous US officials who
obviously leaked the information about who was responsible for the
strikes to the Times. Surely, US intelligence has enough monitoring
equipment to probably know where the first flight originated and
certainly after the bombing would trace the flight of the aircraft back
to its base. The first flight was a week ago. Why did not the US tell
the Libyan government who have repeatedly claimed they do not know the
identity of the aircraft? Why did they not offer to protect the
government from the bombing as the government had asked for
international help? Even after the second strike, there was nothing from
the US. The US was cooperating in keeping things quiet about who was
doing what.

The article goes on to note quite correctly that both Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf States are trying to suppress Islamists associated
with the Muslim Brotherhood. On the other hand, Turkey and Qatar are
friendly to them. The article claims that Qatar has already been arming
Islamists in Libya. While no doubt the Times is correct about these
matters, this does not mean that the US had no involvement.

The Times story continues: Several
officials said that United States diplomats were fuming about the
airstrikes, believing they could further inflame the Libyan conflict at a
time when the United Nations and Western powers are seeking a peaceful
resolution. If the US is seeking a peaceful solution why did they
not intervene after the first raid and warn Egypt and the UAE that they
would not tolerate further attacks? Why not expose the culprits at least
and publicly reprimand them? Even now there has been no official
statement on the issue holding Egypt and the UAE to task, just this leak
to the New York Times.
According to the article, Egypt provided bases for launching the
strikes and UAE the pilots, warplanes, and aerial refueling necessary
for the flights. These are all provided thanks to US training and aid.
Egypt has denied any direct role of its forces in the flights. The UAE
has so far not commented directly. However, Anwar Gargash, minister of
state for foreign affairs said that allegations about the role of the
UAE role come from a group who "wanted to use the cloak of religion to
achieve its political objectives" when "the people discovered its lies
and failures". Perhaps he is referring to Libya Dawn who earlier accused
Egypt and the UAE of being behind the bombings before it was confirmed
by the US. He is also referring to the alleged defeat of Islamists in
recent elections.

The Times provides a misleading account of what Haftar and his commanders said about the strikes:
Anti-Islamist forces based in eastern Libya under the renegade former
general Khalifa Hifter sought to claim responsibility, but their
statements were inconsistent and the strikes were beyond their known
capabilities.
However, from the beginning Haftar has claimed that the bombing was a
joint effort between his own forces and the "international community".
No doubt he has given valuable targeting information to the bombers.
Ironically, a report given to a New York Times reporter contradicts this article:".later
in the day a senior Operation Dignity source claimed his forces had
been responsible for the attack, which targeted Libya Dawn fighters who
have been attempting to gain control of strategic sites like Tripoli
International Airport. The source told New York Times journalist Osama
al-Fitory that the bombs were dropped by a Sukhoi Su-24 plane, in a
“joint operation” between Haftar’s forces and the international
community." Haftar also made a similar claim saying that the
operation was supported by the international community.

What the article
is attempting to do is create a narrative that makes this action part
of the attempts of UAE and Egypt to attack the Muslim Brotherhood. The article also notes that Egypt and the UAE had mounted other strikes inside Libya recently: In
recent months, a special forces team operating out of Egypt but
possibly composed primarily of Emirates personnel had also successfully
destroyed an Islamist camp in eastern Libya without detection.
All this comes out now. The US saw no reason to reveal this or try to stop it earlier.
After two bombings and now a third of Tripoli, even the dimmest-witted
US officials began to realize that they had to create a narrative about
what happened. They marketed the narrative through the New York Times.

While General Khalifa Haftar is mentioned the background of events and Operation Dignity one
of the main sources for the present clashes of militias is not
discussed at all. Haftar started out in February to try and dissolve the
elected parliament, and when that failed he later began Operation
Dignity: On 14 February 2014, General Khalifa Haftar ordered the GNC
to dissolve and called for the formation of a caretaker government
committee to oversee new elections. The GNC ignored his demands.The
conflict began two months later, on 16 May 2014, when forces loyal to
General Haftar launched a large scale air and ground offensive codenamed
Operation Dignity (Arabic: عملية الكرامة‎; 'Amaliya al-Karamah) against
Islamist armed groups in Benghazi. Two days later, Haftar's forces
tried to dissolve the General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli
Actually the Zintan brigades attacked parliament ransacked it and
set it on fire and kidnapped some Islamist legislators and
officials.These are the same brigades that were charged with protecting
the airport and later clashed with the Misrata militia who took the
airport just the other day. Bombings completed the destruction of the
airport hitting the main terminal.

As I thought, this type of background
essential for understanding what is going on will be almost completely
omitted in mainstream press accounts of what is happening. There will
also be nothing about Haftar's earlier CIA connections. Haftar is also a
US citizen and lived in the US for almost two decades. An excellent and
detailed account of Haftar's career can be found here and
is well worth reading in its entirety. Near the end the author Barak
Barfi of the New American Foundation had some suggestions as to what
role Haftar could play in the future of Libya: "Washington and its
partners should persuade the new Libyan government to appoint Haftar as
chief of staff. Respected by his troops, he has the military skills and
combat experience necessary to create a modern army. But most important,
he is the sole Libyan willing to take on the Islamist militias that are
preventing the establishment of a modern state" This would complete
the coup that Haftar was accused of mounting when he started Operation
Dignity. Perhaps, the US really does think that the Egypt and UAE acts
are counter productive but it is also possible that the US supports
their intervention and will use them as proxies to help push the balance
of power towards Haftar's forces.

Monday, August 25, 2014

For a third night unidentified aircraft struck
targets in Tripoli. The attacks came just hours after the Misrata
militia claim they have finally gained control of the Tripoli
International AIrport from the rival Zintan brigades.

The Misrata militia are part of a larger umbrella
group called Libya Shield and also Libya Dawn, both pro-Islamist.The
Zintan brigades are allied with General Khalifa Haftar and his Operation
Dignity. Although part of the Libyan Air Force has defected to ally
itself with the general, Libya is not believed to have planes capable of
launching the attacks. Most of Libya's air force was destroyed by
western attacks during the Libyan uprising that overthrew Gadaffi.
According to Reuters as reported in Al Jazeera, Tripoli residents heard
the jets just at dawn followed by explosions, but there were no details
of what had been hit available.

General Haftar, who has past links to
the CIA, has claimed responsibility for the earlier attacks and says
they are a joint action with the international community.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued
a statement: "Egypt categorically denies press reports that Egyptian
warplanes bombarded positions held by armed Islamist militias in the
Libyan capital." The Misrata militia that was attacked said that Egypt
and the UAE provided the jets. The group reported attacks around Tripoli
airport killed 13 people. Both Egypt and the UAE oppose Islamist groups
such as the Muslim Brotherhood who in turn support the Misrata militia
and other Islamist groups.

An umbrella group of Islamists took control
of Haftar's main base in Benghazi and also ousted Special Forces loyal
to Haftar who were providing security for the city. Haftar was left only
in control of an airfield on the outskirts.
The newly elected parliament was scheduled to meet in Benghazi after the
outgoing government voted to move the parliament there from Tripoli.
However, the parliament met instead in the far eastern city of Tobruk,
for security reasons and no doubt as well to avoid areas where Islamists
would have a great deal of influence rather than Haftar and his allies.

The UN and most foreign embassies have evacuated most or all of their
staff and the embassies have closed. Most airlines have also stopped
flying into Libya as the number of usable airports dwindles. The Tripoli
International Airport is in ruins with many planes destroyed or
damaged. It has been closed
since clashes first started back on July 13th. The control tower had
been previously damaged but now after the latest bombing the main terminal is reported to have been destroyed by fire.

The outgoing General National Congress, questioned the legitimacy of
the newly elected parliament after it decided to meet in Tobruk against
the decision of the GNC that is should he held in Benghazi. Now,
spokesperson for the GNC Omar Ahmidan announced:"The General National Congress will hold an emergency meeting in Tripoli to save the country's sovereignty,"
Islamist groups claim they have no confidence in the new parliament
situated far off in the eastern city of Tobruk.

The parliament in Tobruk
seems to lack any power. It has asked for international help and
pleaded with the warring militia to agree to a ceasefire. The Zintan
brigades at Haftar's request had occupied and burned the parliament
buildings in Tripoli and kidnapped a number of legislators and
officials. Now Haftar and his allies want to ensure that a parliament
said to have a majority of anti-Islamist members is not subject to a
similar attack by pro-Islamist groups.

That the identity of the planes attacking Tripoli remains a mystery
after three nights of raids is itself a mystery. Intelligence agencies
and governments must know where these planes took off from and would be
able to track their flight there and back. Why is it that no country
seems to be making any sort of outcry at what is a terrorist attack on a
capital city. What is much more important is to find out who was the
alleged executioner of journalist James Foley. Can you imagine the press
coverage and outrage if unidentified planes bombed even Ottawa let
alone Washington or London?
.

Most responses to the video posted on line that
depicts an IS executioner beheading journalist James Foley are complete
outrage. However, a few responses question whether a genuine execution
is taking place.

Many of these responses are from conspiracy
theorists who often have limited credibility. A Google search for "Foley
execution video a fake" will provide plenty of links to explore the
range of opinions. Some posters go to quite a bit of trouble to try to
establish their point. I have appended a You Tube posting that claims
that the person allegedly beheaded in the video is not James Foley. He
has audio of Foley and then of the alleged victim in the video and also
comparison of the facial features of each. At the end the poster
suggests that if you want to know who is in the video that one should
ask the CIA.

However, this video was claimed to have been posted by the
Islamic State as a warning to America. The Islamic State has not denied
responsibility for the video. If the CIA made the video surely IS would
deny this.

Even well-known journalist Eric Margolis has doubts about the video and titles his article on the video "Cautious outrage". Margolis begins:
The alleged beheading of freelance journalist James Foley by the
shadowy ISIS (or Islamic State) has sparked outrage and horror around
the globe.I say “alleged” because we are not sure if the decapitation
was real or faked.
Margolis also suggests that perhaps the US is mounting this deceptive horrifying video to demonize IS: Was
Foley’s head really cut off? Hard to tell. We have been fed so much
fake government war propaganda in recent decades – from Kuwaiti babies
thrown from incubators to Saddam’s hidden nukes – that we must be very
cautious. Again, I must ask if this is so, why would IS not deny it
as Saddam Hussein denied the incubator and nuclear weapons stories? The
Islamic State has posted many other violent videos online showing
executions and also a member holding up a severed head. IS seems to
deliberately post shocking videos.

My own conclusion is that at least parts of the video are staged. Certain aspects of the video suggest this. As one article puts it: Video
experts observed that the video showing the actual beheading of US
journalist James Foley was so professionally produced and well-scripted,
to the extent that portions of it appeared to be just being acted out.
One expert who had viewed many videos of beheadings notes that in
the seconds before the executioner uses the knife there is not a single
sign that Foley is terrified as usually happens. Many observers note
that the knife held by the executioner is quite small and is not the
same knife that is on the ground next to Foley's corpse in the next
scene in which his decapitated head is shown on the body. Other
observers note that as the knife is drawn across Foley's neck no blood
is to be seen but if the knife were really used blood should be seen
gushing out.

Prof. Peter Neumann, of the International Centre for the Study of
Radicalization at King's College in London claims that the executioner
who has a British accent was specifically chosen to create the utmost
impact in the west and said: "This is significant because it signifies a
turn towards threatening the west. They are saying we're going to come
after you if you bomb us."
There are a number of interesting comments on this article that has a link to the video. One comment notes the quality of the production:
I've never seen such perfect framing, flawless costumes, resolution,
panning, cuts, white balance, or exposure from one of these savage
videos. This was clearly shot from a tripod using a prosumer camera with
some clever touch-ups in post production.

Another comment suggests that there was no execution:
No blood comes out when the beheading starts. You do not actually get
to see the beheading. When the video returns, you see a headless
mannequin with a tiny amount of blood. People with a badly cut finger
lose more blood than that. If the video is partly staged or even a
fake it is intended to portray the beheading of James Foley and as a
warning to Americans. The result of course is not only to evoke horror
but demands that IS be wiped off the face of the earth. Here are a couple of typical comments:
Burn these ISIS scum into the ground. Send them to their virgins.These
scums will die, let's make a raid every hour, don't let them sleep.

As Margolis points out, westerners have a particular aversion to
beheadings but said virtually nothing about 19 beheadings in Saudi
Arabia the same day Foley was allegedly beheaded. One beheading was for
sorcery. He also notes that air warfare in the west is seen as clean.
Killing people from the air using bombs, rockets, napalm, and cluster
munitions is the American way of war. Slitting someone's throat,
thrusting a bayonet through them, or cutting off their head is barbaric.
It is not a question of being clean I should think. Air attacks
particularly when there are no air defenses as in Somalia, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, or Libya has no cost in casualties a huge political advantage
in a democracy.

In my opinion the aims of IS propaganda and US and its allies propaganda are in alignment.
IS wants to be seen as the prime opposition to the US which has joined
in bombing the IS in Iraq and arming Kurds and Iraqi forces.The savage
killing videos are designed to provoke the west and in particular the US
to further involvement in a war against them in Iraq and Syria. This
can only enhance their standing among jihadists globally.
The US and its allies want to demonize the IS in order to justify more
extensive intervention in Iraq and Syria. This is the same result that
IS wants and explains why some think that the video must somehow be a
CIA-linked production even though this goes against the fact that IS
claims the video.

Margolis suggest IS is carrying out a plan similar to that of Al Qaeda: Could
it be part of Osama bin Laden’s clearly expressed plan to drive the US
out of the Mideast by luring it into a number of small wars, slowly
bleeding the American colossus? So far, by invading Afghanistan, Iraq,
Somalia, and parts of Pakistan, the US may have stumbled right into
Osama’s carefully laid trap.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

After a long struggle, the Iraqi parliament was
able to choose a new speaker, a Sunni, and a new president, a Kurd, and
finally after much friction a new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, a
Shia.

In a statement on Saturday, Salim al-Jabouri,
speaker of the Iraqi parliament, denounced as "terrorists" the Shia
armed group suspected of killing at least 73 people inside a Sunni
mosque .
After rejecting al-Abadi's nomination at first, the present prime
minister Nouri al-Maliki finally gave in to pressure both internal and
external to give up his bid for another term. He was promised a role of
some sort in any new government. However, al-Abadi was left with the
difficult task of forming a new government from groups that are at
loggerheads with one another.

Now a mass killing at
a mosque in which at least 73 people were killed has derailed the
process of forming a government entirely. In protest at the attack Sunni
politicians suspended talks designed to form a new government. Salim
al-Jabouri, the speaker and leading Sunni politician denounced the Shia
group believed responsible for the attacks as terrorists. He said: "There are those who want to thwart the political process. They are targeting the Iraqi society and its social structures."
Both Jabouri ajnd Deputy Prime MInister Saleh al-Mutlak are
demanding that present prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Shia
political allies hand over those responsible for the attack within two
days and also compensate families of victims.

The new prime minister
al-Abadi who will take over from al-Maliki once he forms a government
also spoke out against the attack:"I strongly condemn the killing of
civilians and worshippers in Diyala province and I call on the citizens
to reject these attempts by the enemies of Iraq to exploit the incident
in order to stir up strife between the sons of the same homeland."
Local sources say the attack by the Shia militia may have been in
response to a roadside bomb attack that targeted a recruitment campaign
of the same militia.

An Al Jazeera correspondent remarked:
"Everyone has been terrified that this could be the incident that could
spark another civil war. What we have seen in the past here is that
Shia militias and Sunni fighters come in where there is a security
vacuum, and that is certainly what we are seeing in Iraq."
This event is just one of a number of incidents that show the rising
sectarian violence that will make formation of any new government
difficult. Back in July Shia militia executed 15 Sunni Muslims and hung
them on poles in a public square in the town of Baquba according to
police. According to Human Rights Watch(HRW)
during the month of July alone Iraqi security forces executed more that
255 prisoners during July in retaliation for atrocities committed by
the Islamic State rebels.

In many areas Sunnis cooperate with the IS.
Events such as these will no doubt lead to more alliances with IS in
Sunni areas. The Shia and western countries as well as Iran all see IS
as simply a terrorist organization to be destroyed. However, many
Sunni's will fight against IS only if the Iraq government changes its
treatment of the Sunnis. Ahmed al-Dulaimi, the governor of Anbar province that is mostly controlled by IS said: “The only way to fight ISIS is to support the citizens who lost their dignity and their rights under the old government".

Not everyone agrees that the attack was carried out by Shia militia
members. Some Shia leaders including the cleric and politician Moktad al_Sadr claimed
that the attack was an attempt by IS to create an escalation in
sectarian violence and said it had the "explicit touch of ISIS". If
al-Sadr is correct, the attack worked as intended by IS.

Even if the
Sunni and Shia politicians are able to overcome their differences, the
Kurds also may create difficulties that could block formation of a
government.
The Kurds have occupied new territory since the offensive by IS.They
now control the city of Kirkuk and area and have no intention of giving
control back to the central government. There are certain demands that the Kurds have that they demand be addressed before they even discuss what their role in a new government will be:

The
negotiators are making several demands of the new government, including
implementing Article 140, sending the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) its share of Iraq’s oil revenue, arming the Peshmerga forces and
settling disputes over oil in the Kurdistan Region, said Najib Balatayi,
one of the Kurdish delegates in Baghdad.

Another Kurdish negotiator, Zana Rustay said: “We showed that we
aren’t in a hurry to form the new government; we are more in a hurry to
have our conditions met".

Saturday, August 23, 2014

For the second time in a week CIA-linked General Haftar has claimed
responsibility for an attack by air on targets mostly associated with
Operation Dawn. The Misrata militia are one of the main groups involved
with Operation Dawn.

Reuters reports: The
air force of Libya's renegade general Khalifa Haftar on Saturday
attacked positions of Islamist-leaning militia in Tripoli for the second
time in less than a week, one of his commanders said. The group attacked, Operation Dawn, said the attacks killed ten people and wounded dozens more. A local television station spoke
of not one plane but of planes hitting four positions held by Operation
Dawn. A spokesperson for Operation Dawn said that buildings of the
state oil firm al-Waha near the airport were also hit, as well as the
headquarters of the chief of staff that was under Operation Dawn
control.
Haftar is not believed to be in control of any aircraft that had the
ability to carry out these night raids. Local Libyan TV stations
speculated that the plane may have come from neighboring countries such
as Egypt or western countries concerned about Libya becoming a failed
state and a haven for Islamic militants. It is hard to see how an
isolated bombing of a few positions held by pro-Islamist militias would
do anything other than make the situation worse.

Even though this is the
second set of bombings within a week, mainstream press interest seems
minimal and so far there are almost no analytical articles trying to
piece together what is happening. Most reports do not mention Haftar's
links to the CIA nor do the most recent reports I have read mention
Haftar's own remarks to the effect that these bombings are a joint
effort with the international community.

An earlier article notes about the first strikes on Monday this week: The
source told New York Times journalist Osama al-Fitory that the bombs
were dropped by a Sukhoi Su-24 plane, in a “joint operation” between
Haftar’s forces and the international community." The Libyan air
force is not believed to have such a plane which is a Soviet era
aircraft. Authorities in Egypt have refused to comment as to whether an
Egyptian aircraft was involved according to one source.
The same source notes that some in Libya are suggesting the plane was
obtained from Russia. However, there does not even seem to be any
confirmation that the plane was the Sukhoi Su-24 let alone where it came
from. Haftar's own remarks suggest that the plane could be part of the
foreign or international community support for his operation.

The second strike may represent some desperation on the part of the
Haftar-allied militias. Fighters of the pro-Islamist Libyan Central
Shield umbrella group claim to have now captured the airport. This was
reported on a TV station that allegedly has links to the fighters. This
would be a major defeat for the Zintan brigades who previously provided
security for the airport even though they are the same group that
earlier, on Haftar's behalf, attacked parliament and burned it as well
as kidnapping a number of legislators. None of this seems to be
important news in the west. The only important event since the downfall
of Gadaffi for many in the western media has been an attack on the
consulate in Benghazi that killed the American ambassador and several
other Americans.

The Libyan Central Shield also took control of an army base south of
Tripoli which was one of the targets in the latest air strike as well
as a nearby warehouse. General Haftar was accused by the former
government of mounting a coup. However, the new parliament is said to
have a majority of anti-Islamists who may be more favorable to Haftar,
although since all candidates ran as independents it may be too soon to
assess their leanings. A long, detailed, excellent account of the career
of General Haftar by Barak Barfi who is a research fellow at the New
American Foundation can be found here . One of his recommendations as to what the US should do in Libya is particularly interesting:

Washington
and its partners should persuade the new Libyan government to appoint
Haftar as chief of staff. Respected by his troops, he has the military
skills and combat experience necessary to create a modern army. But most
important, he is the sole Libyan willing to take on the Islamist
militias that are preventing the establishment of a modern state

In May of this year, Haftar began his Operation Dignity with
unauthorized attacks on two Islamist militia bases in Benghazi. As of
now his own base has been captured by an umbrella group of Islamic
militias. The group also is said to control Benghazi and Haftar is
apparently confined to an airport on the outskirts. The new Libyan
parliament was to meet in Benghazi where Haftar is based rather than
Tripoli the capital and former site of parliament. The new parliament
had to meet in the far eastern city of Tobruk. An Al Jazeera documentary
from June of this year is appended and has some discussion of Operation
Dignity as well as reporting on the varying attitudes toward Haftar and
his anti-Islamist program.

As Russia bans many food imports from the west in
response to sanctions by the EU, the US, Australia and Canada, other
countries are coming forward to take advantage of the situation for
their own producers.

Turkish Economy Minister
Nihat Zeybekci said: “Turkey is a major supplier of food and
agricultural produce to Russia. It is ready to increase its food exports
to Russia if necessary,” Russia and Turkey have agreed to increase the
number of Turkish food suppliers to Russia. The new food ban is quite extensive:"..
on August 6 Russia introduced a full ban for imports of beef and pork
(fresh, chilled, refrigerated, pickled, dried or smoked meat), poultry
and any poultry edible products, fish, cheese, milk, dairy products,
vegetables, including root vegetables and tuber crops, and fruit from
Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway. " Apparently wine and baby foods are to be excluded. The full list can be found here.

China is also expected to increase its exports to Russia as a result
of the ban. Egypt is another country that will profit from Russia's ban
as it will also import more wheat from Russia while exporting more
food products. After meeting with Egyptian president Abdel al-Sisi,
President Putin said:
"Egypt has already increased (agricultural) supplies to our market by
30 percent (and) is ready to increase (supplies) by yet another 30
percent in the near future," Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai
Fyodorov claimed that increased shipment of potatoes, onions, garlic,
and oranges would compensate for almost half the shortfall resulting
from the ban.
Western countries impacted by the ban are also seeking new markets.

Poland expects to ship more food and produce to Belarus. Belarus is the third most significant economic trading partner for Poland after Russia and the Ukraine: Belarus
imported Polish products worth $1.581 billion in 2013, which accounts
for 8.9% of the total Belarusian import. In 2013, Poland accounted for
5.5%, or $781.8 million of Belarusian export. At the same time Belarus expects to provide more food and produce to Russia after the ban.

Russia is also boosting trade with Latin American countries. The EU is
attempting to put pressure on countries not to increase trade with
Russia a move that is likely to simply cause tension with the EU: The
European Union plans to lobby countries that could benefit from
Russia's bans on Western food imports, such as Brazil and Chile, to
refrain from bumping up their exports and stick to the international
party line on Russia's conduct in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.

There is even division within Europe on the wisdom of bans against Russia. The Hungarian Prime Minister Orban said
that the EU had "shot itself in the foot" with the sanctions and that
the sanctions hurt the EU more than the Russians. He also said that the
EU should compensate producers who are losing from the Russian ban and
that the EU should rethink their entire policy.

Two sets of brothers were beheaded using swords in the city of Jajran in
southwestern Saudi Arabia on Monday August 18th after being convicted
of smuggling marijuana into the country according to the Saudi Interior
Ministry.

The government news agency SPA
identified the two sets of brothers as Hadi and Awad al-Motleg and
Mufarraj and Ali al-Yami. The four were found guilty of having smuggled
"a large quantity of hashish" into Saudi Arabia.
Amnesty International claimed
that there had been a "disturbing surge" in executions in Saudi Arabia
of late with a total of 32 already this year and said:"The Saudi Arabian
authorities must halt all executions". Amnesty also claimed that the
conviction of the four was "reportedly on the basis of forced
confessions extracted through torture".

During the last two weeks there
have been 17 beheadings a rate of more than one a day.The families of
the executed men had been asking for help from Amnesty as the executions
became imminent but were told by the Interior Ministry to stop trying
to contact Amnesty. Amnesty representative Said Bouhmedouha called
the recent increase in beheadings a deeply disturbing deterioration and
said: "The authorities must act immediately to halt this cruel
practice". Four days previous to this execution a Pakastani was beheaded also for drug trafficking.

In Saudi Arabia a
number of different crimes can be punished by death including rape,
murder, apostasy, armed robbery, and drug trafficking. There were 78
executions in the country last year.
In August alone this year 19 people have been beheaded. Among those beheaded, Mohammed Al-Alawi was convicted for practicing sorcery.

Students in Chile are out in force again
protesting the slow pace of education reform as thousands of peaceful
protesters marched through the capital Santiago yesterday, August 21.

Many student leaders helped elect president Michelle
Bachelet of the Socialist Party. Dozens of unidentified people who wore
masks turned the protest violent by interrupting the march. They damaged traffic lights, started fires in trash cans and threw sticks and stones at police.
The organizers of the protest claimed there were about 80,000 in total
at the protest whereas the Chilean Interior Ministry estimated the
number only at 25,000. Some enthusiasts
on Twitter put the turnout at 300,000. The demonstration created some
major traffic jams near the city center. This is the third major protest
by students this year. An article on a protest early in June can be found here, with many photos.

There have been protests in Chile by students since 2011 designed to force reforms and end the system introduced by General Pinochet which included vouchers. Goals include:
The end of the Chilean school voucher system, its replacement by a
public education system managed by the state. The end of for-profit
education. Changes to tax code to better finance education.
In Chile at present only 45 per cent of high school student are in
traditional public schools and most universities are also private. Even
though university enrollments have increased considerably since the
transition to democracy in 1990 no new public universities have been
built.

Yesterday's march was billed as the "National March for Education" and organized by numerous student and teacher's group. President Michelle Bachelet was
elected in December 2013 with over 62 per cent of the vote partly on a
promise of reforming the privatized education system which has been
criticized not only for its poor quality but as benefiting the rich.
A proposed reform bill would stop subsidies to for-profit school and
do away with some selective entrance guidelines. A second round of
reforms scheduled for later this year would also include free university
education. Other countries such as Finland also have free
post-secondary education.

Lorenza Soto, president of the Cooradinating Assembly of Secondary Students(ACES) said:
“The government is dealing with this in a highly disorganized way by
avoiding citizen participation and believing that [reform] can move
forward with [ entrepreneurs of Chile’s Industrial Promotion Society],
and the congressional constitutional committee alone”.

Max Ferrer ,
president of the University of Chile's Center for Engineering Students,
also complained that students themselves were being left out of the
reform process: “We do not understand why President [Michelle
Bachelet] cannot prioritize a substantive dialogue with the student
movement, which represents society’s interests and not the pockets of
few".

Friday, August 22, 2014

Many sites on the internet including citizen
journalist sites such as Digital Journal are partially if not wholly
funded by advertising. Advertising on the internet has become a very
complicated business and includes many complex operations.

RTB or Real Time Bidding is one such operation. The video here should be viewed in order to get a clear idea of what all
the operation involves. I personally found the video to be an excellent
introduction to the subject from someone who had not the slightest idea
of what it was
A partial description is given by Wikipedia:
Real-time bidding (RTB) refers to the means by which ad inventory is
bought and sold on a per-impression basis, via programmatic
instantaneous auction, similar to financial markets.[1] With real-time
bidding, advertising buyers bid on an impression and, if the bid is won,
the buyer’s ad is instantly displayed on the publisher’s site.[2]

My simplistic view of this is that it involves auctioning off one
instance of a viewer's eyeballs looking at a web page with the ad bought
by RTB appearing on the page. The hope is that the ad will not only be
viewed but that the viewer may actually purchase something as a result.
In former times ads were often simply static images promoting some
product or service. Of course those types of ads still exist all over
the place even on web pages but in digital advertising there are many
newer devices for advertising that involve quite different techniques.

For example sponsored content:Sponsored
content is paid text, video, or images created to promote a brand or
product that is presented alongside similar media that isn't
promotional. For example, a blog entry that discusses the benefits of a
specific product that was paid for by product advertiser is sponsored
content.
For example at the bottom of this Digital Journal article you
find a number of squares that contain links to sponsored content. Each
item resembles the contributor report above that is a news report. The
sponsored content also looks like a news report and even has a posting
date and is posted by admin. One posting reports how to pay just pennies
for brand new products. It is in effect an ad for bidding site Quibids.
Another report is about a diet pill that is just too effective and is
storming Canada. The ad is a promo for a diet pill. Such ads have links
to the site that is selling what is being "reported" on.

Native
advertising is an online advertising method in which the advertiser
attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the
user's experience. Native ad formats match both the form and function of
the user experience in which they are placed. The advertiser's intent
is to make the paid advertising feel less intrusive and thus increase
the likelihood users will click on it. The word "native" is used to
refer to the formatting of the advertising materials to make them appear
more consistent with other media in the recipient's universe.

As the appended video notes when a potential ad placer bids on
an ad he or she may have different targets in mind such as viewers in a
certain locality or viewers searching for certain items such as a car.
Websites keep information about viewers often collected by cookies..
This information will be available to potential advertisers and may
influence whether they will or not bid in RTB. The result is that you
will find ads that reflect your interests at least according to the data
collected. I perused sites selling used cars including eBay. Now eBay
and some other sites always show me ads for cars even though I am no
longer looking for a car. Next time you open a web page remember you are
auctioning off the glimpse of the webpage by your eyeballs. Don't blink
or go to sleep that would be cheating the advertiser.

The Yemeni government has paid out more than $1 million U.S. to
relatives of victims of a U.S. drone strike. Documents verifying the
payments show that there was evidence that many casualties were
civilians with no Al Qaeda connections.

The documents
are signed both by Yemeni court officials as well as relatives of the
victims. The payouts all deal with one particular drone strike that hit
vehicles in a convoy of vehicles that was part of a wedding party. Fifteen people were killed in the attack with five more reported injured. The attack had been carried out under the auspices of the Joint Special Operations Command(JSOC). The New York Times reported:"
... the Yemen government banned military drone operations after a
series of botched drone strikes by JSOC, the last of which was a
December 2013 drone strike that killed numerous civilians at a wedding
ceremony. Despite a ban on military drone operations the Yemen
government allowed CIA drone operations to continue.[3]"

The documents
include many details including the identities of those killed. Among
the victims were a father and son who belonged to a Yemeni organization
devoted to curbing Islamist militants. While the father survived, the
son was killed in the attack. The amounts paid out are
many times larger than Yemeni officials earlier reported. The total is
more than the US military paid out over an entire year in Afghanistan.
US officials have declined to comment either on the strike or any
possible role the US might have in the payments.

Caitlin Hayden,
a spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House,
said: “Although we will not comment on specific cases, were
non-combatants killed or injured in a U.S. strike, condolence or other
ex gratia payments, such as solatia, may be available,” A Yemen expert
Gregory Johnsen claimed that it was unlikely that the Yemen government,
which is quite short of cash, would make the payments to the families on
its own. The payments in this case are far greater than is usual: The
U.S. military has in recent years made hundreds of “solatia” payments
to compensate victims for errant strikes in war zones, but the payments
rarely exceed $5,000 per recipient.

A 2013 report by ProPublica cited
information from the Pentagon indicating that U.S. forces made 219
payments totaling $891,000 in 2012 in Afghanistan. In a speech in
May 2013 Obama set out strict guidelines for drone strikes that required
that no strikes should be made unless there was “near certainty that no
civilians will be killed or injured."

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Russia is planning to vastly increase the use of
China UnionPay credit cards to compete with Visa and Master Card which
provide almost all credit card services in Russia at present.

Visa and MasterCard froze accounts
associated with several Russian banks last March without any notice. In
response to these actions Russian President Putin signed a law that
would create a national payment system and
also allow a security fee of up to 10 percent of a foreign companies'
daily turnover.This would be to compensate banks for any service
disruption. The law takes effect on January 1 next year. The percentage
is much lower than the original 25 percent contemplated at first. The
concession was made at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Even so Visa said it did not rule out leaving the Russian market as it
found the security deposit demand unacceptable.

China's UnionPay could
easily replace Visa if it departs. The company hopes to have 2 million
cards in Russia within three years. Although UnionPay emerged in China
only in 2002 as a domestic alternative to Visa and MasterCard it is now number one in terms of the number of cards issued in the world. Since then UnionPay has had a huge international expansion:
Now UnionPay cards can be used in 141 countries and regions around the
world (second-largest payment network by value of transactions
processed, behind Visa.). Some UnionPay Credit Cards are also affiliated
with either American Express, MasterCard or Visa, and they can be used
abroad as an American Express, MasterCard or Visa. UnionPay Debit Cards,
however, can only be used in the UnionPay network and other networks
that have signed contracts with UnionPay. Since 2006, China UnionPay
cards can be used in over 100 countries outside China.[5]

Russia's biggest banks are already making technical preparations for use of the UnionPay cards and running tests on them. Denis Fonov, Deputy Chairman at LightBank(LaitBank) a small bank based in Moscow said;
“Visa and MasterCard have 100 percent trust, but right now, there is no
trust in the system, and many, even our clients, have shifted their
transactions from American dollar and Euro to Yuan. They are eager to
receive this card- we already have a big list of people waiting to get
this card instead of MasterCard and Visa,” LightBank has been
working with UnionPay for some time and had ordered 10,000 cards for its
clients already. There are already 20,000 cards in Russia and another
100,000 are planned for September. LightBank reportedly
is to issue 10,000 cards next week.

UnionPay claims to have about 30
partner banks in Russia. While many large Russia banks are planning to
begin issuing the UnionPay cards the huge Sberbank is planning to
concentrate on developing the Russian "Pro 100" payment system. UnionPay
will be required to pay a security deposit at the same rate as
Mastercard and Visa.

Russia is also seeking to become less dependent on dollars and Euros
by increasing its gold stock. At the end of July it held gold stocks
worth $45 billion. Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist at the Deutsche Bank in Moscow said: "The
fact that Russia has intensified its diversification process reflects
the fact that a fairly high proportion of reserves were held in dollars
and euros, while the share of gold was low,”
In the first half of this year Russia has reduced its foreign
currency reserves by 2.5 per cent. It is also buying Chinese yuan, and
the Japanese yen rather than US dollars and Euros. I wonder if a US PR
firm produced the enclosed promotional video for UnionPay.

Even though CIA-linked General Haftar claims his
bombing of Misrata militia in Tripoli was a joint effort with the
international community there seems little attention let alone analysis
in the media of what is happening in Libya

On Monday, Libyan air force units loyal
to General Kahlifa Haftar struck positions of the Misrata militia in
Tripoli. The militia has been in a prolonged battle at and near the
Tripoli international airport with allies of Haftar, the Zintan
brigades. The battle has moved closer to the center of Tripoli now as
unidentified militia have fired Grad rockets into two upscale districts
killing three people according to local residents. The area is home to
many foreign brand outlets including Marks and Spencer, and Nike and
fancy cafes.
There were reports that six people had also been injured in the
attacks but none of the casualties had been confirmed as yet by the
Health Ministry. On its Facebook page a group of rebels from Misrata called Libya Dawn claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.The government ordered
a satellite provider to shut down two of its own television stations as
they are said to be controlled by pro-Misrata groups. No doubt this is
to prevent pro-Islamist opinions being voiced. The Egyptian government
did the same thing in Egypt. Sky News
reported that the two stations had stopped broadcasting on Tuesday. The
Egyptian company NileSat runs the communications satellites providing
the services to the station. Many in the government have fled to the
safety of the eastern city of Tobruk where the parliament has been
meeting.
Haftar's forces have been trying to wrest back control of Benghazi and
his own bases from an umbrella group of Islamist militia who control
the city. At least three people are reported killed and eight wounded in
recent Benghazi clashes according to a local hospital representative.
Western powers including officials from France, the US, EU, and Egypt
have all denied any involvement in the Tripoli bombing attack. Haftar claims that he launched the strikes as part of a joint international operation.
The unidentified planes launched strikes on four targets associated
with the Misrata rebel group Libya Dawn. A senior representative of
Haftar's Operation Dignity also claimed responsibility for the attack. That source also
told a New York Times journalist that the bombs were dropped by a
Sukhoi Su-24 plane and was a joint operation of Haftar's forces and the
"international community". There are no listings of
the Sukhoi S--24 as part of Libya's little remaining air force.
However, some of the planes were sold to Libya during the Gadaffi era.
The plane is from the Soviet era.
Egyptian security sources said that air traffic between Libya and Egypt
had been suspended for six hours overnight for "security reasons".
This
all sounds very suspicious given Haftar's past links with the CIA but
the linkage in this case could be with Egypt and al-Sisi. Haftar has
even suggested that he would like to be the el-Sisi of Libya. His Operation Dignity mimics
el-Sisi's attack on the Muslim Brotherhood. As well as attacking
Islamist bases in Benghazi, Haftar's allies in the Zintan Brigades
attacked and burned parliament and kidnapped Islamist lawmakers and
officials back in May as shown on the appended video. In spite of this
the group remained in charge of security at the Tripoli international
airport until recent clashes with Misrata militia.

Protesters in Pakistan are trying to force the resignation of Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif. A Lahore court ordered murder charges be brought
against both Sharif and his brother after a crackdown on a protest by
preacher Muhammad Qadri last June.

Muhammad Qadri is
a popular anti-Taliban anti-terror preacher. However, he has also made
speeches critical of the Sharifs and their associates for corruption. He
is a dual Canadian, Pakistani citizen who lived in Toronto for a number
of years before returning to Pakistan. The Lahore Sessions Court gave the order:
A Pakistani court on Saturday ordered framing of murder charges against
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Punjab Chief Minister
Shahbaz and 19 others over the June violence near Canada-based cleric
Tahirul Qadri's headquarters that killed 14 of his supporters.

The Punjab government will challenge the court's decision according to an official of the ruling party.
Protesters arrived in Islamabad after a Long March in
which there were clashes with government supporters along the way.
Along with Qadri, leader of an opposition party PTI, Imran Khan, led the
protests in Islamabad. Even before the murder charges were laid the protesters were calling for the resignation of Sharif and fresh elections accusing him of corruption and the last elections as rigged.
Together Khan and Qadri issued an ultimatum for Sharif to resign or
face growing disobedience including not paying taxes. Later Khan announced
that his entire PTI party the third largest in parliament would quit
the parliament. The party holds about 10 per cent of the seats but also
have significant positions in three provincial parliaments as well. The
ruling PML-N party insists they are not about to resign in face of the
protests. Should the situation further destabilize their is always a
chance that the armed forces will take over power.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Many reports speak of airstrikes in the Libyan capital Tripoli as being
launched by an unknown party against Islamist militia from Mistrata on
Monday August 18.

Actually there should be no mystery about who
launched them, especially since the target was a militia group linked to
Islamists. CiA-linked General Khalifa Haftar some time ago launched Operation Dignity by
attacking from the air two Islamist bases in the eastern city of
Benghazi. Khalifa is a US citizen having lived in the US almost two
decades. Since the Haftar attack the Islamists have fought back and
driven Libyan Special Forces allied with Haftar out of Benghazi and have
seized several bases. Haftar's forces appear to be hemmed in at an
airport on the outskirts of Benghazi. However, elements of the Libyan
Air Force have allied with Haftar allowing him to make attacks from the
air.

ftar's
"air force" was responsible for the attack. His "air force" are simply
members of the Libyan air force such as it is who simply allied
themselves with Haftar and brought a few planes with them. Most of the
Libyan air force was destroyed during the uprising against Gadaffi. Many
sources said that it was unknown who was responsible for the strikes
including the Boston Globe and ABC news.
The strikes are reported to have killed six people. Some speculated
that the attack must have come from a foreign country such as Italy. The Libyan government ordered an investigation: In
a statement, the government demanded the chief of staff and military
intelligence to investigate the predawn strikes Monday morning targeting
positions of militias originally from the coastal city of Misrata and
its Islamist allies.

General Haftar himself added to the confusion according to this source:
Gen. Hifter himself claimed the attacks were part of a “joint
operation” between his troops and the international community, aiming to
target Islamist-leaning militias. The "international community"? Why are not other sources reporting on this and trying to find out what is going on?

The new parliament is said to have a majority of anti-Islamists in it
although it is hard to see how this can be known, since all those
elected ran as independents. It seems hard to believe that the
parliament has no idea what is going on. I expect that Haftar has many
in the new parliament who support him. The new parliament met in the
eastern city of Tobruk because of worry about security conditions in
Benghazi where it was slated to convene after the caretaker government
decided to move it there.

General Haftar not only launched attacks on Islamist bases in
Benghazi, his allies the Zintan brigades raided, occupied, and burned
the parliament in Tripoli and then kidnapped several Islamist
legislators and government officials. This is the same group that
provided security for the Tripoli international airport. However that
control was challenged by militia from Misrata and elsewhere who have
been fighting pitched battles with the Zintan militia that destroyed
much of the airport and many planes and residential areas near the
airport.

The Libyan parliament recently
asked the UN to intervene and take measures to protect civilians. This
is reminiscent of the earlier UN resolution for a no-fly zone to protect
civilians from Gadaffi air attacks. So far the UN has not indicated
that it will act in Libya except to pull out most of its staff for
security reasons. Many foreign embassies are closed down for security
reasons as well. Maybe Haftar will claim that he is carrying out his
duty to protect the people by attacking Islamist militias. An attempted
coup is taking place in Libya while the newly elected parliament looks
on helplessly. The former government had
accused Haftar of mounting a coup and ordered him arrested. The arrest
was never carried out.

-
A monument to Soviet troops located in Sofia the capital city of
Bulgaria was spray- painted recently in one of several cases where
Soviet era monuments have been vandalized.

The Russian Embassy in
Bulgaria sent a note to the Bulgarian government demanding that the
former ally during the Soviet era clean up the monument as well as
identifying, and punishing those responsible. The note also asked
Bulgaria to take measures to ensure that such vandalism does not happen
in future. The day before the Bulgarian Socialst Party's 123rd
anniversary the monument was sprayed with red paint according to the
Novinite news agency in Sofia.
Last year, on the night of August 21, 2013 the
anniversary of the Russian invasion of Czechslovakia to crush an
uprising in 1968 a monument to the unknown Soviet army liberator was
painted pink and "Bulgaria apologizes" was
written on it in Bulgarian and Czech, as Bulgaria had participated with
Russia in the invasion. The pink colour was in homage to Czech artist
David Cerny. In 1991 he had painted a Monument of Soviet Tank Crews, a
Second World War monument, pink. He was arrested and the tank repainted,
but it was later painted pink again by the government and placed in a
military museum.

The monument to the Unknown Soviet Liberator has been subject to
other acts of vandalism as well including once being painted the blue
and yellow of the Ukraine with the inscription "Glory to the Ukraine".
One of the more imaginative and creative acts of vandalism recast the
unknown liberator as Superman. It can be seen here..
In many areas Soviet era monuments especially those depicting Stalin
have been demolished. Particularly countries that are now aligning with
the west and resented periods of being Soviet satellites monuments are
removed. Ukraine recently saw many Lenin statues demolished. Even in
Moscow monuments that were placed in many different areas of Moscow were
all brought together and are now in one place as shown in the appended
video. An exception to the rule is the breakaway Republic of Transnistria which proudly displays many Soviet era monuments.